21st Century Technological Challenges

[sarongsong]

February 16, 2008
The 14 challenges were announced at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science:

Make solar energy affordable
Provide energy from fusion
Develop carbon sequestration
Manage the nitrogen cycle
Provide access to clean water
Reverse engineer the brain
Prevent nuclear terror
Secure cyberspace
Enhance virtual reality
Improve urban infrastructure
Advance health informatics
Engineer better medicines
Advance personalised learning
Explore natural frontiers
BBC

[Jigsaw]

When I see a home computer that can (A) explain to me exactly why it decided to rearrange all my icons on the desktop so that I can't find anything, and (B) can put them all back where they were before without whining about it, *then* I'll be willing to buy their "Machines will achieve human-level artificial intelligence by 2029" story.

[Ronald Brak]

When I see a human that can (A) explain to me exactly why it decided to rearrange all my icons on the desktop so that I can't find anything, and (B) can put them all back where they were before without whining about it, *then* I'll be willing to disbelieve their "Machines will achieve human-level artificial intelligence by 2029" story.

[Noclevername]

"Enhance virtual reality"? Is entertainment really that high a priority? I can think of a few dozen more important things they could do with their time.